THE prospect of huge lorries laden with rubbish travelling through Dorking on their way to Capel has been held out as one of the reasons why a giant incinerator should never be built in the village.

The chairman of Dorking & District Preservation Society, Sir Martin Wedgwood, says that in pursuing the Capel project, waste chiefs at County Hall continue to ignore a crucial planning consideration known as the proximity principle.

This holds that rubbish must be disposed of close to where it is generated. Sir Martin maintains that trucking garbage from Guildford to Capel is a clear breach of the principle.

“Incinerators should be placed as near to the sources of the waste that they will be processing,” he says. “Surrey County Council has ignored this principle almost entirely.

“If the Capel incinerator is built, almost all the waste will have to be hauled along a section of the A24 that is one of the most dangerous roads in the county.

“What is more, there is no way that anybody can prevent large container lorries carrying waste from Guildford from using the A25 and navigating through Dorking.” Sir Martin says the society has for many years opposed the idea of an incinerator at Capel and will continue to do so.

Among other objections it has to the scheme includes the fact that the incinerator, at the Clockhouse brickworks site, would be underneath the Gatwick Airport flightpath.

He says it is possible that the downdraft from aircraft could interfere with the function of the incinerator’s chimneys.

“It is unacceptable that an incinerator should be allowed to be built before independent studies have clearly established the extent of these dangers,” he added.

Sir Martin says it would make better sense for the county council to have a series of small scale incinerators to deal with its waste mountain rather than a single huge one. While they would be more numerous, they would have far less impact on their surroundings.

However, Sir Martin says the county council’s contractor, SITA, appears to be against the idea and committed to the notion that big is best.

“The council is under strong pressure to ignore public opinion and the proximity principle and we maintain it is therefore no longer an appropriate body to decide the matter,” he adds.